Green Car News
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Henrik Fisker is viewed by many in the automotive industry as one of the finest designers of his generation, responsible for stunning cars like the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, and Fisker Karma. But at a recent TEDx talk where the founder of Fisker Automotive told the audience how he got into automotive design, he drew a tantalizing sketch on stage that hints the firm could be designing a two-door plug-in coupe. Titled “New Isn’t Easy,” Fisker’s talk focused on visionary designs that have challenged the status quo over the past 100 years, ranging from the Model T Ford...
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Want To Drive A Natural Gas Vehicle? Be Prepared For A Detour
By the end of this year, Honda says it will have more than 200 dealers certified to sell the 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas across the U.S. Much cheaper than regular gasoline and cleaner-burning, many states offer incentives to encourage drivers to make the switch to natural gas. But there’s...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Whoops: Infiniti Emerg-E Hybrid Breaks Down At Goodwood (Video)
If you're showing off your flagship product in front of tens of thousands of people, you'd probably hope that everything goes without a hitch. Unfortunately for Infiniti, whose stunning Emerg-E plug-in hybrid was there to wow the crowds at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed, things didn't quite...
Antony Ingram -
Mazda To Offer All-Electric Mazda2, In Japan, For Lease Only
Electric cars can be split into three basic groups. There are the few models carmakers intend to sell in volume (e.g. Nissan Leaf), those that are only "compliance cars"--built solely to satisfy regulatory requirements--and, lastly, the "test fleet" cars, with which manufacturers gather real-world...
John Voelcker -
2013 Ford Escape Vs. 2013 Mazda CX-5: Crossover Comparison
It's no surprise that crossovers are having such a surge in popularity right now. By offering the sort of chunky styling and high driving position that draws people to SUVs, with gas mileage and driving characteristics more in common with regular compact cars, they offer the best of both worlds for...
Antony Ingram -
2012 Coda Sedan: On Sale, But Can You Test-Drive One?
It’s been nearly four months since deliveries of the 2012 Coda Sedan started, but with the automaker not willing to divulge its sales figures and very few cars spotted on the road, is the automaker in trouble? According to PluginCars, the Californian automaker’s biggest problem at the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Chrysler will use a new EcoDiesel badge to distinguish its upcoming range of clean diesel vehicles, set for roll-out over the next few years. Coming straight from the United States Patent and Trademark office, the new badge will make its first appearance on the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, when that model receives a new 3.0-liter diesel for the 2014 model year. The new diesel Grand Cherokee, using an engine already in use in Europe, is expected to go on sale in January 2013. The 3.0-liter, turbocharged diesel develops 241 horsepower and 406 pounds-feet of torque, and in its current application...
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How Much Space IS There Inside A 2012 Tesla Model S Anyway?
It can be hard to work out which cars the 2012 Tesla Model S electric sport sedan competes with. Would it be largest German luxury sedans, which it roughly matches in price with the longest (265-mile) range and the introductory limited-edition Signature Series models? If so, those would be the...
John Voelcker -
2013 Ford Fusion Stop/Start: Ford Explains Why It’s Different
A few years ago, some automakers began offering stop/start technology on select cars as a way to help lower emissions and increase fuel economy in busy city traffic. Early stop/start systems in non-hybrid cars were often slow to respond to driver input, making them unpopular with drivers, but now...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
BMW ActiveE Safety Recall For Possible Power Steering Failure
BMW is recalling its ActiveE electric cars to replace a potentially faulty component whose failure could leave drivers without power steering. According to the text of the recall, "variations in electrical current" may occur within the electric power steering, leading to a sudden loss of the power...
John Voelcker -
Electric Mercedes Galore Competing In Austrian E-Car Rally
Daimler might only have one full production electric car at the moment, in the shape of the 2013 smart fortwo electric drive, but the company has been experimenting with several other electric vehicles over the past few years. Many of these are set to compete in the third Silvretta E-Car Rallye, a...
Antony Ingram -
Oregon Joins Long Trail Of Pacific Coast Electric Car Charge Stations
It may not be long before electric car owners on America's Pacific coast can drive all the way from Canada to Mexico--using quick-charge stations. Thanks to Oregon's new 'electric highway', it's now possible to charge an electric car every 25 miles down a 200-mile stretch of Interstate 5. That...
Antony Ingram -
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been driving, what type of car you have or how it happened: having a car accident isn’t nice. Normally, post-accident, your insurance company may help you find a local repairer to get your car looking good as new again. But if you have an electric car, letting them do that could damage your car’s expensive battery pack, reducing its life and usability. Here is our take on what happens after an accident, and why you need to ensure your electric car goes to a specialist garage for repair instead of a repair center chosen on price alone...
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2013 Lexus RX 450h: 750-Mile Gas Mileage Test
The Lexus RX luxury crossover line is the mainstay of Toyota's luxury line in the U.S., representing fully 42 percent of the brand's total 2011 sales. And the hybrid Lexus RX 450h model finds many buyers among progressive, affluent suburban families. There's just one problem: Its real-world gas...
John Voelcker -
BMW i Electric Cars To Tour The World Before Launch
Before the 2014 BMW i3 is officially launched as a production model, the innovative all-electric minicar is going on a whirlwind world tour--chaperoned by its more powerful, sexy, and sleek i8 plug-in hybrid sports coupe sibling. The pair of concept cars just completed the first of seven stops they...
Tom Moloughney -
Toyota Prius Popularity Continues To Soar, Boosting Hybrid Sales
At the end of every month, major automakers participate in the age-old tradition of reporting their sales figures for the previous month. Frankly, those figures aren’t normally that exciting, but this month’s sales returns from Toyota caught our attention for one simple reason. During...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Two Electric Cars, One Planet To Race Around: Who Will Win?
Remember the two French guys in their Mitsubishi i (well, Citroen C-Zero)? Their eight-month, 15,500-mile journey in the tiny electric car is just one of many long-distance EV publicity drives we've seen, but certainly one of the longest. Naturally, they're not the only people to have thought of...
Antony Ingram -
2013 Fiat 500X: Previewed On Video, Full Details Soon?
It's just 18 seconds of video, but a clip from Italy appears to show the first clear details of yet another upcoming Fiat model to help the brand return to volume sales in the U.S. market. Posted on Tuesday, the video shows what is almost surely a Fiat 500X crossover. This new model is the...
John Voelcker -
While many car buyers today are interested in making the switch from gasoline to plug-in cars, they often worry that they have nowhere to charge it at night. That worry can lead to consumers ignoring plug-in options, but a new study from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (via GreenTechMedia) has proven that nearly half of all U.S. car-owning households park their car within 20 feet of an electrical outlet. Detached houses, not apartments As you might expect, single-family detached homes fared best in the recent Residential Energy Consumption Survey, with 60 percent of detached homes...
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2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid: 47 MPG City, 44 MPG Highway, $26K Price
Toyota might be the current undisputed king of hybrid cars, but that fact isn’t about to stop Ford from going after the Japanese automaker’s crown. Its 2013 C-Max Hybrid, Ford says, will get an EPA city rating of 47 mpg, some 3 mpg higher than the official EPA city rating for the 2012...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
CARB Renews Electric Vehicle Fund With $27 Million
California has long been known for its efforts to reduce pollution from vehicles, and efforts to popularize hybrids and electric cars. The California Air Resources Board has now taken that one step further by approving a $27 million fund for its Air Quality Improvement Program (AQIP). Much of this...
Antony Ingram -
Want To Know What An Electric-Car Only Race Sounds Like?
Visit any major race track on any day of the week and there’s bound to be a cacophony of noise as professional race teams or enthusiastic amateurs drive lap after lap in praise to the gods of gasoline. But what would it be like if every car going around the track was powered by electricity?...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
June Plug-In Electric Car Sales: Volt Stays Strong, Leaf Low
Half of this year is now gone, which means it's time once again to look at sales of plug-in electric cars--both for June and for the first six months of 2012. Coming off a streak of low sales months, 535 Nissan Leafs were sold in June, less than one-third the 1,708 Leafs delivered in June 2011...
John Voelcker -
2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid: Now By Royal Appointment
As every automaker knows, getting Royal endorsement for a particular car or brand can help boost its image. Normally, such Royal endorsements are limited to luxury or prestige brands, but earlier this week, the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid received its official royal appointment courtesy of His...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield